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A £65m spend on innovative green technologies resulting in a distillery that recycles 31% of its water and 85% of its steam and electrical power ‘What I like is that it is not just about cost; it is not just about increasing capacity. It is about having a broader view of the world, whereby CIMA members can no longer just look at the hard financial numbers, you have to take a view on what consumers will require from large companies regarding their environmental attitude. You do not make these investments solely on financial projections.’
Paul Walsh FCMA CEO Diageo Volatility in the energy market coupled with ambitious sustainability targets were the key drivers behind a £65m investment in an environmentally-focussed approach to plant and processing at Diageo’s Cameronbridge distillery in Fife. With an annual energy bill of £5m and a distillery requiring 1.8 billion litres of water a year and producing 90,000 tonnes per year of spent grain, Diageo wanted a more sustainable model. The drinks maker is building a waste water treatment plant, a biomass boiler and steam and electrical generation plant. Waste water will be treated with bacteria to produce methane, which will be burnt in conjunction with the spent grains to produce steam to power the stills. Cameronbridge aims to source 31% of its water and 85% of its power from this plant. It also hopes to remove virtually all effluent discharge to the Firth of Forth. Diageo executives assembled a cross-disciplinary team, including CIMA finance professionals, senior managers, engineers and process chemists, to work on the project.
The initiative had commitment from the highest level. Diageo CEO and FCMA, Paul Walsh, says the new approach is a model of how business analysis can be deployed to arrive at sustainable processes that meet high environment and social standards. ‘It demonstrates the need for holistic management; you cannot just look at the P&L, you cannot just look at your margins, you have got to have a far broader view of life,’ he says. Cameronbridge is an important location for the company, employing about 140 people and producing the equivalent of nearly 400 million bottles of spirits per year. So the cost scenario planning for approaches including the new technologies to be employed was key. The team costed out scenarios that would need a smaller investment from the board, but it was the most ambitious that was signed off and approved for commissioning – a huge vote of confidence in the planning and financial modelling behind the project, says Michael Alexander, Head of Environment at Diageo.
CIMA value: Diageo A business plan that justified a £65m spend on innovative green technologies. A distillery that recycles 31% of its water and 85% of its steam and electrical power. T. +44 (0)20 8849 2251 E. cima.contact@cimaglobal.com www.cimaglobal.com